White Sox lose games of RISP, drop series to Nationals

After pulverizing the ball while scoring 44 runs on their six-game trip last week, the White Sox must have left their bats at baggage claim upon returning home.

With a chance to win a rare third consecutive three-game series, the Sox mustered only nine runs against a Nationals team with the second-worst ERA in the majors. They dropped the rubber game 2-1 in 10 innings Sunday, mustering only four hits.

Their biggest issue was hitting with runners in scoring position. The Sox went 4-for-33 in the series after going 1-for-8 in the finale.

‘‘The story of the whole series was runners in scoring position,’’ Sox manager Will Venable said. ‘‘We weren’t able to create runs. We got some guys on base, and guys competed. They just couldn’t finish the job and get some of these baserunners across to score.’’

The Sox’ impressive power display on the road against the Athletics and Diamondbacks might fade to memory rather than foreshadow more, even with slugger Munetaka Murakami tied for the major-league home-run lead with 11.

On Sunday, they couldn’t solve Nationals starter Foster Griffin, whose cutter helped lead to eight strikeouts in seven innings. The Sox’ only run came on Tristan Peters’ single that scored free runner Derek Hill in the 10th.

Maybe the Sox need to get back on the road. Not only have they lost eight of their last nine at home, but only seven of their 33 homers have come at Rate Field. They open a three-game series Monday against the Angels before heading west again to face the Padres and Angels.

While their hitting doesn’t appear to have staying power, their starting pitching does — or at least the pitching that follows the opener. After left-hander Bryan Hudson threw a perfect first inning, right-hander Sean Burke dominated in his career-high 7⅓ innings. He allowed three hits and fanned four on 76 pitches and retired 15 batters in a row from the fourth to the eighth.

‘‘He was in the zone the whole day,’’ Venable said. ‘‘Got ahead of hitters. Got a lot of quick, soft contact. I thought the cutter was really effective for him today. That’s a new pitch for him that he had a ton of confidence in right away. It was as good as we’ve seen Sean.’’

Said Burke: ‘‘This is an aggressive team, so using that to my advantage. Trying to be in the zone a lot so they’re swinging. The wind [made it] tougher to hit balls out today, so using that to my advantage, too.’’

Burke said he began working on the cutter in the last week of spring training. He said it was inconsistent the first couple of weeks, but his confidence in the pitch has grown after changing his grip two starts ago.

‘‘You look around the league, and you see a lot of starting pitchers going to that three-fastball mix and having success with it,’’ Burke said. ‘‘Just another pitch to show some of the lefties right now. I’ll throw it occasionally to righties, too. It’s a fourth, fifth pitch to think about.’’

Venable pulled Burke for left-hander Sean Newcomb with a runner on in the ninth. After a stolen base prompted Newcomb to issue an intentional walk, he escaped the jam by inducing two pop-ups.

Closer Seranthony Dominguez pitched the 10th and struggled, allowing a sacrifice fly to CJ Abrams’ and a home run to pinch hitter Jose Tena. Though he nailed down the save in the Sox’ 5-4 victory in the series opener Friday, fans revisited his blown save at home April 15 against the Rays, in which he allowed three runs.

‘‘He had a great outing just the other day,’’ Venable said. ‘‘He’s continued to pitch well for us. There’s spots, of course, where these guys aren’t gonna be perfect. But Seranthony is one of our really important pieces at the back end of our bullpen.’’